Myanmar Denies Post-Cyclone Rice Shortage Reports

Myanmar's minister for national planning and economic development, Soe Tha, has categorically denied reports that the country was likely to face food shortages after swathes of rice paddies were destroyed when Cyclone Nargis struck last month.

"Some organizations were spreading groundless information such as there is or will be a shortage of rice in Myanmar," Soe Tha was quoted as saying at a meeting with international relief agencies on Tuesday.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization had earlier warned that national food security could be compromised unless the rice-planting season urgently begins in the fertile Irrawaddy Delta region, which was pummeled by the cyclone.